Paint It Black or Red: Serious Play in Brazil's Northeast

Abstract

This article analyzes a popular, folkloric dance drama in the small city, Laranjeiras, a thriving slave port for its first three centuries. Lambe-sujo e Caboclinho, dating to the 19th century, depicts the practice of missionized Indigenous people engaged to capture and return fugitive slaves. Participants paint themselves either black or red and parade through the streets, leading to a mock battle, ending in defeat of the fugitive slaves. This article employs ethnographic data and historical research to consider the use of performance, which enhances heightened consciousness of racial oppression, reinforced by Afro-Brazilian social movements, and makes the event serious fun. Residents of this overwhelmingly Black city are rethinking responses to racial oppression in today's Brazil through a cultural performance with the flexibility to serve as a window onto the past that opens onto the future. The article contributes to the fields of cultural anthropology, folklore studies, and critical race studies. [cultural performance, Northeast Brazil, racial inequality, slave revolts] R E S U M O Este artigo analisa uma dança popular e folclórica na pequena cidade de Laranjeiras, SE, a qual, durante seus primeiros três séculos, foi um próspero porto no comércio de africanos escravizados. A dança "lambe-sujos e caboclinhos", que teve suas origens no século XIX, retrata uma prática de conversos indígenas recrutados para prender e devolver fugitivos. Os participantes se pintam ou de preto ou de vermelho enquanto se preparam para o evento e desfilam pelas ruas, culminando numa batalha simulada que termina na derrota dos escravos fugitivos. Este artigo usa métodos etnográficos